Mixed team
The newest event of all struck gold
On a blazing Saturday, with temperatures hovering around the mid-thirties all day long, 16 pairs from 16 nations got to try their luck in the main arena for the mixed team competition. Teams were chosen from the top scores from the ranking round and ultimately permed from a possible 30 possible pairings who shot the day before. Great Britain opened well against the rather more fancied China, but then shot indifferently against Mexico to leave at the quarter-final stage. Taipei’s troubles continued as they exited quickly to India; Germany and the ROC left quickly, as did a woeful Italy, and perhaps the biggest shock of all: the USA going down to a tightly wound Indonesia, who impressed in Paris and again today. Brady Ellison left the press zone with a breezy “I’ll try not to smash something”.
The Netherlands pair of Steve Wijler and Gabi Schloesser came through a quarterfinal shoot-off against France, as Wijler’s first magnificent 10 booted open a door that France couldn’t close. The Dutch then faced a tense Turkey, shooting Mete in and Mete out. They seemed well matched, the first two sets going 36-35, but Mete wobbled at in end three – literally, as the winds started to pick up – but Yasemin Anagöz managed to pick up the pieces. Mete looked sharper in the fourth, like he could shoot for ever. But in the end, Schloesser only needed a nine with the last to split the points and take the set, and the match, and a guaranteed Olympic gong.
A gold-medal match with Korea beckoned, but first, Turkey had to go straight back out and face a confident Mexico – at least until Luis Alvarez posted a two in the second end. But Alejandra Valencia pushed Mexico back to the top of a wave, and they coasted into a fourth. Both teams were revved up by now, but an appalling five from Anagöz handed Mexico Olympic bronze on a plate and sent Turkey home in fourth. That five will probably be haunting her for the rest of her life. It was Mexico’s first medal since London 2012 and the famous double podium for Mariana Avitia and Aida Román.
The final would be historic whatever happened: the first ever mixed team Olympic gold. For the Netherlands, going in with a silver was already a good result, as it seemed like Korea would cruise to victory. But the oranje opened with a 38 to a twitchy Korean 35. The
noisy delegation in white in the east stand suddenly seemed subdued. Suddenly, we all wondered. It took a furious, vocal performance from Kim Je Deok to drag the match back to level terms. The Dutch kept fighting, but a six from Wijler, otherwise so strong at the business end of this tournament, sank the third, and it was 4-2 to a roaring Korea – even if An San didn’t seem to quite have the killer instinct to go with the metronomic timing.
The Netherlands opened the fourth with a nine, 10. Korea replied with two 10s. Then Wijler and Schloesser stepped right up with two 10s and a total 39; the sort of statement that says “we’re going to a shootoff ”. Schloesser’s 10, under immense pressure, deserves special applause. But Je Deok stepped up and got it done. An San needed a nine, and a nine is what she got. It was enough. Asked about the match afterwards, Je Deok told a bemused set of reporters the Cantona-esque: “Yesterday I had a dream, and there were several snakes in my dream. I thought it was an auspicious dream.”
The mixed team competition, long mooted and finally delivered, stuck the landing for what the international federation and the IOC wanted: a wider diversity of nations involved, a public commitment to equality, and something actually new – but crucially, something that did not increase the number of athletes. It hit the spot so well that IOC president Thomas Bach turned up to watch and help hand out the inaugural gongs. It also broke the ice on an Olympic competition in the most trying circumstances.
So many international archery narratives end the same way: “but in the end, Korea triumphed”. The great white sharks were not as crisp and not as mean as they could have been. It didn’t feel like a foregone conclusion. But even if the talent was raw, it had enough edge to get the job done. A tense afternoon in the Korean camp had been averted. Many times, there have been questions asked, but here, Korea had all the answers.